Trio of storms ravage area

Thu, Jul 3, 2008    to del.icio.us

A series of fierce storms blew through West Michigan on Wednesday, knocking out power to thousands of homes and businesses and toppling trees and branches onto lawns and across roads.

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The first storm blew through the area between 2 and 2:30 p.m. Residents in Ferrysburg and Crockery Township reported power outages from that storm.

A second stronger storm hit shortly after 4 p.m., which led to more widespread power outages and numerous calls of downed power lines and trees.

A third storm blew through the area around 9 p.m.

The Grand Haven Department of Public Safety was called to the pier at 4:15 p.m. for a report of six people trapped on the pier, with one person possibly in the water. The person was out of the water when officials arrived and everyone was safe, police said.

A car and semitrailer truck reportedly collided at U.S. 31 and Ferris Street in Grand Haven Township about the same time. Officials reported minor injuries at the scene.

Loutit District Library was forced to close four hours early Wednesday after losing power when the second storm hit.

WZZM-TV meteorologist Hally Vogel said 3.65 inches of rain fell in Grand Haven on Wednesday. In Grand Rapids, the 5 inches of rainfall Wednesday set a record for the day and was the third wettest day for July on record there. Official rainfall reports in Holland and Muskegon were just over an inch for the day.

Wind gusts of 60 mph were reported in Muskegon at 2:25 p.m., in Allendale at 2:47 p.m. and in Holland at 4:42 p.m. The highest wind gust reported in the state Wednesday was 75 mph in Dexter, near Ann Arbor, Vogel said.

Nickel-sized hail fell in Whitehall at 1:47 p.m., while half-inch or larger hail fell in Lamont and Marne later on Wednesday. Quarter-inch-size hail was reported in Coopersville.

A rare phenomena called a seiche was reported Wednesday evening on Lake Michigan. Vogel said a combination of wind and air pressure causes one side of a lake to fall and subsequently rise on the other side. She said spotters reported a seiche of 2 feet on the Michigan side of the lake, which results in very strong and dangerous rip currents.

"The weather service says water fluctuations and dangerous rip currents are still possible (off Lake Michigan's shore) today," Vogel added.

There were no official indications of tornadoes or funnel clouds in Michigan on Wednesday, Vogel said.

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Trees, branches and debris covered many lawns and streets throughout Northwest Ottawa County after the storms blew through the area. Power outages were scattered but numerous.

Board of Light & Power spokeswoman Renee Molyneux said there were many scattered outages in their service area from the first two storms, but the majority were restored by 8 p.m. She said a total of 2,100 customers lost power at some point Wednesday, and BLP crews were restoring power to the few remaining customers without service this morning.

"It was a long night," Molyneux said.

A spokesman for Consumers Energy said late this morning that about 165,000 of its customers across the state had no electricity.

Consumers Energy spokesman Tim Pietryga said 18,750 of its customers in Ottawa County remained without power at 11 a.m. today. He said 48,000 customers in Kent County, 11,000 in Allegan County and more than 5,00 in Muskegon County were also without power this morning.

Pietryga said electricity was expected to be restored to the majority of Consumers Energy customers without power in the state by Friday evening, but some of the rural areas the company serves could be without power until Saturday.

When strong winds started howling Wednesday afternoon, Spring Lake Township Fire Capt. Joe Stalzer had a flashback to about 10 years ago when straight-line winds left a trail of destruction in the Tri-Cities area.

"The wind had that 'freight train' sound to it, that roar," he said. "It reminded me of 1998. It didn't last as long, but it was similar for a short time."

Fortunately, Wednesday's storms — although severe — didn't produce as much damage as the infamous wind storm of May 31, 1998.

"We had the potential for quite a bit of damage with a couple of houses getting hit by lightning and quite a few wires down," Stalzer said. "It was unusual to have so many primary wires down. There was a lot of voltage laying there."

Consumers Energy diverted what could have been a long haul without electricity for some residents, according to Stalzer. A pole supporting a transmission line in the Country Estates Mobile Home Park, east of 148th Avenue, was leaning precariously during the first storm.

"If that went down, we wouldn't have had power anywhere," Stalzer said. "They had to get on that and save that right away. It would have taken a long time to get that back up."

Spring Lake Township firefighters responded to about 15 calls on Wednesday.

"I was out around 9 or 10 last night and it was amazing how much water was on these roads," Stalzer said this morning.

Grand Haven Township Fire Chief Tom Gerencer said his department received about 10 calls Wednesday, primarily for downed power lines.

"There were a lot of trees down, so it made it difficult to get to some calls," Gerencer said. "We removed a tree from U.S. 31 near Ferris. That was quite a hazard."

Ferrysburg Fire Chief Mike Olthof said a power line drooped about 5 feet off the ground across North Shore Road, blocking the roadway for about three hours late Wednesday afternoon and early evening.

Spring Lake Township Deputy Fire Chief Jim Koster said Spring Lake Village was hard hit in the 300 block of Barber Court, where several trees fell on homes and cars. There were no reported injuries.

The department removed a fallen tree that blocked the Liberty Woods senior apartment driveway around 5 p.m., and a home at 339 DeWitt Lake suffered damage when a primary power line became entangled with the house's service line.

"There were lots of burn marks and plugs that blew out," Koster said. "It did quite a bit of damage, but fortunately we didn't have any injuries."

Fire officials in Robinson Township did not return phone calls prior to press time.

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Five trees fell across M-104 in Crockery Township, between 140th and 144th avenues, blocking the roadway and rerouting traffic for about two hours until it could be cleared.

Krista Johnson, who lives across M-104 from where the trees fell, said the sky became very dark just after 4 p.m. and high winds blew the trees from the south side of the road north toward her parent's home. She said the trees didn't reach the home, but they crushed their mailbox. No one was hurt.

"It happened so fast," Johnson said. "It was definitely pretty scary."

The second storm Wednesday also sheered off a portion of the roof and side of the Netshape International plant at 16344 Comstock St. in Grand Haven Township. Tyler Forbes, the plant manager, said the high wind shredded a 50-foot length of framing, exposing an area of about 70 feet by 70 feet of the shipping office and storage area to heavy rain.

Jim Sear, 113 Emmet St. in Grand Haven, said a large branch from a big beech tree on his Five Mile Hill property crashed into the skylight over his home's kitchen and sunroom late Wednesday afternoon. Although the family was home at the time, he said no one was hurt.

Donna Phelps of Spring Lake Township said she waded through nearly knee-deep water to her car in the parking lot after shopping at the Goodwill store, 1112 Robbins Road. She said the lot was flooded from the second storm Wednesday afternoon and her small car had water inside it.

"I drove home 6 miles with my feet in water," Phelps said.

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Tim Smith, director of Ottawa County Central Dispatch, said his team had 18 people handling emergency calls Wednesday.

"Three different storms hit us at three different times, plus we had the (double) homicide in Grand Haven," Smith said this morning. "When the second wave of storms came in, we pulled in additional people. ... When the first storm hit, we began getting overflow calls from Muskegon and then our calls overflowed to Allegan County. It was a domino effect."

Smith praised his staff, whom he estimated handled between 1,200 and 1,500 calls Wednesday.

Grand Haven State Park Manager Pat Whalen said "surprisingly we did not" have any damage from Wednesday's storms.

A lightning strike apparently sparked a house fire Wednesday that caused a minor injury to a Grand Rapids firefighter, The Associated Press reported.

Tribune writers Becky Vargo, Beth Heinen Bell and Marie Havenga contributed to this report.

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